Electronic apparatus

ABSTRACT

A method of fabricating an electronic apparatus having an active region and a peripheral region surrounding the active region is described. A first main device and a second main device are provided. An optical clear liquid adhesive (OCLA) is applied between the first main device and the second main device and within the active region. A photo-mask having a transparent region and an opaque region is provided above the second main device, and the transparent region corresponds to the peripheral region. An OCLA diffusion process is performed such that the OCLA diffuses from the active region to the peripheral region. During the OCLA diffusion process, a first irradiating process with the photo-mask is performed, such that the OCLA diffusing to the peripheral region is partially cured. After removing the photo-mask, a second irradiating process is performed, such that the OCLA is completely cured.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a divisional application of patent application Ser. No.12/915,017, filed on Oct. 29, 2010, which claims the priority benefit ofTaiwan application serial no. 99125148, filed on Jul. 29 2010. Theentirety of the above-mentioned patent applications is herebyincorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention is related to an electronic apparatus and a method offabricating the same, and in particular to a display and a method offabricating the same.

2. Description of Related Art

In order to achieve goals of being more convenient, more light-weight,and more user-friendly, many electronic products have adopted touchpanels instead of conventional keyboards and mice as their inputdevices. Touch display panels which have both touch and displayfunctions have become one of the most popular products nowadays.Generally, touch display panels may be classified into externallyadhered touch display panels or built-in touch display panels.

In an externally adhered touch display panel, a display panel and atouch panel are generally separately fabricated and then adhered to eachother. A conventional adhesion method is applying an ultraviolet (UV) orvisible light curing adhesive on the display panel or the touch panel,and adhering the display panel and the touch panel by irradiating andpressing. However, during the above processes of irradiating andpressing, since the UV or visible light curing adhesive is difficult tocontrol, problems of adhesive overflow often occur. The leaked adhesivemay contaminate fabrication equipment, thereby reducing yield andaffecting reliability of products.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The disclosure provides a method of fabricating an electronic apparatus,which prevents problems of adhesive overflow when a display panel and atouch panel are adhered to each other.

The disclosure provides an electronic apparatus which is formed by usingthe above fabricating method.

The disclosure provides a method of fabricating an electronic apparatus,wherein the electronic apparatus includes an active region and aperipheral region surrounding the active region. The method includesproviding a first main device and a second main device. An opticallyclear liquid adhesive (OCLA) is applied between the first main deviceand the second main device, and the OCLA is applied in the activeregion. A photo-mask is provided above the second main device, whereinthe photo-mask has a transparent region and an opaque region, and thetransparent region corresponds to the peripheral region. An OCLAdiffusion process is performed, so that the OCLA diffuses from theactive region to the peripheral region, wherein during the OCLAdiffusion process, a first irradiating process is simultaneouslyperformed with the photo-mask, so the OCLA is partially cured when itdiffuses to the peripheral region. After the photo-mask is removed, asecond irradiating process is performed, so that the OCLA is fullycured.

The disclosure provides an electronic apparatus which has an activeregion and a peripheral region surrounding the active region. Theelectronic apparatus includes a first main device, a second main device,and a cured OCLA. The first main device and the second main device aredisposed opposite to each other. The cured OCLA is disposed between thefirst main device and the second main device and fully fills the activeregion and partially diffuses to the peripheral region, wherein a curingrate of the cured OCLA which fully fills the active region is less thana curing rate of the cured OCLA which diffuses to the peripheral region.

In summary, when performing the OCLA diffusion process, the firstirradiating process is also performed with the photo-mask, so that theOCLA is partially cured when it diffuses to the peripheral region. Sincethe OCLA is cured and unable to flow outward and/or inward onceirradiated, problems of adhesive overflow during conventional adherenceprocesses are prevented.

In order to make the aforementioned and other objects, features andadvantages of the disclosure comprehensible, embodiments accompaniedwith figures are described in detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitutea part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of thedisclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the disclosure.

FIGS. 1A to 1D are schematic diagrams showing a process of fabricatingan electronic apparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of an electronic apparatus according toan embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a schematic top view of a photo-mask shown in FIG. 1B.

FIGS. 4A to 4D are schematic diagrams showing an optically clear liquidadhesive diffusion process according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

FIGS. 1A to 1D are schematic diagrams showing a process of fabricatingan electronic apparatus according to an embodiment of the disclosure.Please refer to FIG. 1A. A first main device 100 and a second maindevice 200 are provided. The electronic apparatus formed by the firstmain device 100 and the second main device 200 has an active region Aand a peripheral region P which surrounds the active region A (as shownin FIG. 2)

According to the present embodiment, the first main device 100 may be adisplay panel, which is, for example, a liquid crystal display panel, anorganic luminescent display panel, an electrophoretic display panel, oranother type of display panel. The second main device 200 may be a touchpanel, which is, for example, a capacitive touch panel, a resistivetouch panel, an optical touch panel, or another type of touch panel.However, the disclosure is not limited to the above configuration.According to another embodiment, the first main device 100 may beanother type of main device, such as a touch panel. The second maindevice 200 may also be another type of main device, such as a coverlens.

According to the embodiment, the first main device 100 is a displaypanel which includes a bottom substrate, a top substrate, and a displaymedium disposed between the top substrate and the bottom substrate.Generally, the bottom substrate may be termed a pixel array substratewhich includes a plurality of pixel structures, wherein each of thepixel structures includes a scan line, a data line, an active device,and a pixel electrode. The top substrate may be termed an oppositesubstrate or a color filter substrate, which may be a blank substrate, asubstrate which has electrodes disposed thereon, or a substrate whichhas a color filter disposed thereon. In the first main device 100, theactive region A of the electronic apparatus may be termed a displayregion, and the peripheral region P may be termed a driving circuitregion or a peripheral circuit region.

The second main device 200 is a touch panel. According to the type ofthe touch panel (capacitive touch panel, resistive touch panel, oroptical touch panel), the elements in the second main device 200 are notnecessarily the same. Since the touch panel may be any know type ofcapacitive touch panel, resistive touch panel, or optical touch panel,the elements in the touch panel are not redundantly described. In thesecond main device 200, the active region A of the electronic apparatusmay be termed a touch region, and the peripheral region P may be termeda peripheral circuit region.

An optically clear liquid adhesive (OCLA) 300 is applied between thefirst main device 100 and the second main device 200, and the OCLA 300is mainly applied in the active region A. In particular, the OCLA 300 isa light-curable adhesive, such as a liquid adhesive which is cured afterUV irradiation. In addition, the OCLA 300 preferably has over 90%transparency before curing, and has over 97% transparency after curing.Since the OCLA 300 is applied in the active region A, the OCLA 300 isrequired to have high enough transparency so as to not affect imagedisplay quality of the electronic apparatus. According to the presentembodiment, a material of the OCLA 300 is, for example, an OCLA with themodel number 08A21X-17 manufactured by SONY Corporation.

A method of applying the OCLA 300 in the active region A between thefirst main device 100 and the second main device 200 may be any type ofknown applying processes. The OCLA 300 may be applied to the first maindevice 100 or the second main device 200. According to an embodiment, amethod of applying the OCLA 300 between the first main device 100 andthe second main device 200 is applying the OCLA 300 on the second maindevice 200, and flipping the second main device 200 opposite to or abovethe first main device 100. The OCLA 300 drips down to the first maindevice 100 due to gravity and slightly contacts the first main device100. Afterwards, as a diffusion process (pressing process) proceeds, thecontact area between the OCLA 300 and the first main device 100gradually increases, so that the OCLA gradually and uniformly diffusesoutward and/or inward, thereby being beneficial to edging out air at theperiphery of the OCLA 300 or to expelling air from the active region Ato the peripheral region P.

After the OCLA 300 is applied in a central area, an edge area and/ or acorner of the active region A of the electronic apparatus, wherein theactive region A is located between the first main device 100 and thesecond main device 200, referring to FIG. 1B, a photo-mask 400 isprovided above the second main device 200. In particular, as shown inFIGS. 1B and 3, the photo-mask 400 has a transparent region 402 and anopaque region 404. The transparent region 402 corresponds to theperipheral region P, and the opaque region 404 corresponds to the activeregion A. According to the present embodiment, the transparent region402 of photo-mask 400 has an outer edge 402 a which is an outest edge ofthe photo-mask 400 and an inner edge 402 b which is an edge adjacent tothe opaque region 404 or a boundary between the transparent region 402and the opaque region 404. The outer edge 402 a is preferably alignedwith a side edge of the first main device 100. The inner edge 402 b islocated in the peripheral region P or on an edge between the peripheralregion P and the active region A, so that the OCLA 300 will be partiallycured in the peripheral region P or on the edge between the peripheralregion P and the active region A during the following irradiatingprocess, so as to prevent the OCLA 300 that is not yet cured fromflowing outside the first main device 100 and/or the second main device200 and leading or guiding the OCLA 300 that is not yet cured flowingand filling within the active region A. A width of the transparentregion 402 of the photo-mask 400 is from 2 to 100 inches. In practice,the width of the transparent region 402 is sometimes required to exceedthe side edge of the first main device 100 and/or the second main device200. In brief, a size of the transparent region 402 changes with a sizeof the first main device 100 and/or the second main device 200 whetheraligns or exceeds with the peripheral region P.

Then, an OCLA diffusion process is performed such that the OCLA 300diffuses from the active region A to the peripheral region P. Inparticular, when performing the OCLA diffusion process, a firstirradiating process 600 is simultaneously performed with the photo-mask400, so that the OCLA 300 is partially cured when it diffuses to theperipheral region P.

According to the present embodiment, the OCLA diffusion process furtherincludes a pressing process 500 of pressing the first main device 100and the second main device 200. In other words, according to the presentembodiment, the OCLA diffusion process may include exerting pressure onthe second main device 200 towards the first main device 100, so thatthe OCLA 300 diffuses from the active region A to the peripheral regionP. During the pressing process 500, the first irradiating process 600 isalso performed on the OCLA 300 with the photo-mask 400. According to anembodiment, a wavelength of light used in the first irradiating process600 is 300-400 nm, an irradiating intensity is 3600-5400 mW/cm², and anirradiating time is 1.6-2.4 seconds.

Since light in the first irradiating process 600 is only able topenetrate the transparent region 402 of the photo-mask 400, the OCLA 300diffused to the transparent region 402 is cured by irradiation. Infurther detail, changes in physical properties of the OCLA 300 diffusedto the transparent region 402 are generated due to irradiation. Forexample, hardness and viscosity of the OCLA 300 diffused to thetransparent region 402 gradually increase with the irradiating time, sothat a diffusion speed is gradually reduced. When the OCLA 300 in thetransparent region 402 is partially cured, it stops diffusing andflowing. Since the OCLA 300 in the opaque region 404 is not irradiated,the OCLA 300 in the opaque region 404 continues to diffuse outwardand/or inward during the OCLA diffusion process until the gap betweenthe first main device 100 and the second main device 200 in the activeregion A (corresponding to the opaque region 404) is completely filledby the OCLA 300, so as to ensure that during subsequent processes, thefirst main device 100 and the second main device 200 are completedbonded to each other in the active region A, and display quality is notaffected by bubbles or gaps.

The process of applying the OCLA and the OCLA diffusion process areshown in FIGS. 4A to 4D. In FIG. 4A, the OCLA 300 is applied in theactive region A. In order to ensure that the OCLA 300 is evenlydiffused, the OCLA 300 should preferably have an applying shape/patternin a central area and/or an edge area of the active region A of theelectronic apparatus a such as a fish bone-shaped portion that shown inFIG. 4A. The fish bone-shaped portion comprises a main portion and aplurality of oblique bone portions. Included angles between the mainbone portion and the oblique bone portions may be the same or different.For example, the included angles may decrease from a central part of themain bone portion to two terminal parts of the main bone portion.According to the present embodiment, since a dot-shaped portion of theOCLA 300 is applied at each of the four corner s of the active region A,during the subsequent OCLA diffusion process, the OCLA 300 evenlydiffuses towards each direction, thereby filling the four corners of theactive region A. However, the applying shape/pattern of the OCLA 300 isnot limited to the above shape/pattern. In another embodiment, accordingto a size of the electronic apparatus and a type or composition of theOCLA 300, the applying shape/pattern of the OCLA 300 may be anothershape/pattern.

Afterwards, during the OCLA diffusion process (such as shown in FIG.1B), the OCLA 300 diffuses in a manner shown in FIGS. 4B and 4C. Inother words, the OCLA 300 gradually and uniformly diffuses from theactive region A to the peripheral region P. When the OCLA 300 diffusesto the peripheral region P, since light in the first irradiating processpasses through the peripheral region P, the OCLA 300 gradually stopsflowing and forms a result as shown in FIG. 4D. In other words, the OCLA300 completely fills the active region A even in a little space at ancorner of the active region A and partially diffuses to the peripheralregion P in FIG. 4D.

Still referring to FIG. 1B, since the OCLA 300 corresponding to thetransparent region 402 of the photo-mask 400 is cured and stopsdiffusing, the OCLA 300 corresponding to the opaque region 404 isblocked by the OCLA 300 corresponding to the transparent region 402 anddoes not flow outside the gap between the first main device 100 and thesecond main device 200 but flows along an edge of the cured OCLA 300 toan area in the opaque region 404 not occupied by the OCLA 300, so thatthe opaque region 404 or the active region A are fully filled by theOCLA 300, and no partial overflow to the transparent region 402 or theperipheral region P or lack of the OCLA 300 in the opaque region 404 orthe active region A occurs.

Next, as shown in FIG. 1C, the photo-mask 400 is removed and a secondirradiating process 700 is performed, so that the OCLA 300 is fullycured. According to an embodiment, a wavelength of light used in thesecond irradiating process 700 is 300-400 nm, an irradiating intensityis 100-150 mW/cm², and an irradiating time is 57.6-86.4 seconds. Inorder words, no photo-mask is used during the second irradiating process700, so that during the second irradiating process 700, the OCLA 300 isfully irradiated and fully cured. In other words, the OCLA 300originally corresponding to the opaque region 404 or the active region Ais cured by the second irradiating process 700, and the OCLA 300corresponding to the transparent region 402 or the peripheral region Pis not only cured by the first irradiating process 500, but alsoaffected by the second irradiating process 700 so that a curing rate ofthe OCLA 300 is further increased. The first main device 100 and thesecond main device 200 are hence adhered to each other, thereby formingthe electronic apparatus shown in FIGS. 1D and 4D.

Therefore, the electronic apparatus formed by the above method is shownin FIGS. 1D and 4D and includes the first main device 100, the secondmain device 200, and the cured OCLA 300. The first main device 100 andthe second main device 200 are disposed opposite to each other. Thecured OCLA 300 is disposed between the first main device 100 and thesecond main device 200 and fully fills the active region A and partiallydiffuses to the peripheral region P.

Similarly, since the OCLA 300 which diffuses to the peripheral region Pundergoes the first irradiating process 600 and the second irradiatingprocess 700, the OCLA 300 which diffuses to the peripheral region P hasa longer curing time. In addition, since the OCLA 300 which fully fillsthe active region A undergoes only the second irradiating process 700,the OCLA 300 which fully fills the active region A has a shorter curingtime. In other words, in the electronic apparatus shown in FIG. 1D, acuring rate R1 of the cured OCLA 300 which fully fills the active regionA is less than a curing rate R2 of the cured OCLA 300 which diffuses tothe peripheral region P. The curing rate of the cured OCLA 300 may bemeasured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or Fouriertransformed infrared (FTIR). According to the present embodiment, thecuring rate R1 may range from 90%-100%, and the curing rate R2 may alsorange from 90%-100%. For instance, when the curing rate R1 equals 90%,the curing rate R2 may be 91% but not be 90%. As the same reason, whenthe curing rate R2 equals 100%, the curing rate R1 may be 99% but not be100%. The curing rate R1 is always less than the curing rate R2.

In summary, when performing the OCLA diffusion process, the firstirradiating process is also performed with the photo-mask, so that theOCLA is partially cured when it diffuses to the peripheral region. Sincethe OCLA is gradually cured after irradiation, the method in thedisclosure prevents problems of adhesive overflow during conventionaladherence processes.

Moreover, the first irradiating process is performed with the photo-maskso that the OCLA is partially cured when it diffuses to the peripheralregion, and the OCLA in the active region continues to flow outwardand/or inward until the OCLA completely fills the active region.Therefore, by using the photo-mask and the first irradiating process, inaddition to preventing adhesive overflow, a usage amount of the OCLA isalso controlled.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made to the disclosure withoutdeparting from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of theforegoing, it is intended that the disclosure cover modifications andvariations of this disclosure provided they fall within the scope of thefollowing claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic apparatus, having an active regionand a peripheral region surrounding the active region, the electronicapparatus comprising: a first main device; a second main device,disposed opposite to the first main device; and a cured optically clearliquid adhesive, disposed between the first main device and the secondmain device and fully filling the active region and partially diffusingto the peripheral region, wherein a curing rate of the cured opticallyclear liquid adhesive which fully fills the active region is less than acuring rate of the cured optically clear liquid adhesive which diffusesto the peripheral region.
 2. The electronic apparatus as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the cured optically clear liquid adhesive has over 97%transparency.
 3. The electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1, whereinthe curing rate of the cured optically clear liquid adhesive which fullyfills the active region and the curing rate of the cured optically clearliquid adhesive which diffuses to the peripheral region respectivelyrange from 90%-100%.
 4. The electronic apparatus as claimed in claim 1,wherein the first main device comprises a display panel and the secondmain device comprises a touch panel.